Various types of fuseholders for retaining tubular fuses are well-known, and commercially available. Conventionally, separate fuseholders are used for retaining the style of fuses commonly used in the United States, and for retaining the smaller type of fuse used internationally throughout much of Europe and other countries. Thus, it has been necessary to construct equipment having different fuseholders for sale in different countries, and, if it is decided to sell a completed item in a country other than the ones whose requirements it was intended to meet, the original fuseholder must be removed and a different fuseholder substituted.
Also, conventional fuseholders are subject to a loss of electrical continuity, sometimes known as "doorbelling" when a cap member of a bayonet-type fuseholder is depressed, since the bayonet fastening means also serves to establish electrical connection, with a spring that forces the fuse into proper electrical contact also serving to maintain the latching elements of the bayonet latch in physical contact. When the cap member is depressed, the force of this spring is overcome, and the latching members move away from each other. While rotation of the cap is necessary to remove the cap from the body portion, electrical continuity is interrupted without rotation. Accidental breaking of electrical contact either due to accidental depression of the fuseholder cap or due to depression of the fuseholder cap without knowledge of the consequences may present a serious problem in complex equipment, such as a computer or an item including digital logic whose present state depends on a long and complex history of previous states, or in storage means such as disk drives where the read-write head is supported on a thin film of air generated by the rapidly spinning storage disk. Interruption of electrical continuity due to depressing a fuseholder cap may cause slowing of the storage disk, resulting in the read-write head contacting the storage disk, destroying the storage disk and the read-write head.
The instant invention overcomes these and other deficiencies of the prior art.